Hammer borrows from Universal to reboot the series
Hammer did seven Frankenstein films from 1957-1973: “The Curse of Frankenstein” (1957), “The Revenge of Frankenstein” (1958), “The Evil of Frankenstein” (1964), “Frankenstein Created Woman” (1967), “Frankenstein Must Be Destroyed” (1969), “The Horror of Frankenstein” (1970) and “Frankenstein and the Monster from Hell” (1973). Peter Cushing plays Baron Frankenstein in every one of these except "The Horror of Frankenstein" because it was a remake of the original story and they needed a much younger actor for the role
With "The Evil of Frankenstein" it had been six years since the previous installment and it reboots the series after a distribution deal made with Universal. Before this, Hammer went out of its way to make their version different from Universal (for legal reasons); here, the monster has the iconic Universal look and Dr. Frankenstein’s lab is similar to the classic one, albeit everything’s in color.
While Terence Fisher directed five of the installments, Freddie Francis does the honors here (his only directing job for Frankenstein) and I found it superior to the previous “The Revenge of Frankenstein.” Yet it’s not great like the next two entries, “Frankenstein Created Woman” and, especially, “Frankenstein Must Be Destroyed.”
The basic Frankenstein story is intact: a mad scientist from Western Europe in the late 1700s/early 1800s is obsessed with creating life from an assortment of body parts and so sets up shop in a secret lair and is successful, but the confused, grotesque creature ends up going on a killing spree. Thankfully, this one adds the entertaining village carnival element as well as the interesting involvement of a selfish hypnotist from the fair (Peter Woodthorpe). Sandor Elès plays the Baron’s assistant while Katy Wild and Caron Gardner are on hand on the feminine front.
Although people gripe about the lack of continuity with the two previous installments from 6-7 years earlier, it can be resolved with a little imagination and filling in blanks: The Baron secretly built an alternative lab at his chateau outside Karlstaad which, if you think about it, he would’ve HAD to do during the events of “Curse.” He simply omitted these clandestine undertakings from his explanation to the cleric. The flashback in this movie, told by Frankenstein to new helper Hans (Sandor Elès), is the doctor’s fixed-up version of events in Karlstaad wherein he leaves out most of the details and lies about being exiled rather than condemned to execution. Since Hans isn't Hans Kleve from “Revenge,” he knows only what Victor wants him to know about what went down.
The movie runs 1 hour, 24 minutes and was shot at Bray Studios, just west of London.
GRADE: B
